He wasn’t perfect; no child was. A fierce stubborn streak ran through him, surfacing at odd moments. On occasion he would be instructed to do something and he’d refuse—rare, but it happened—and when it did, no force on earth could persuade him. He could be distractible, struggling to complete tasks because of a tendency to daydream. From time to time I’d caught him in a lie, although I had to admit his lies usually sprang from some nobler purpose, sparing someone’s feelings or taking the fall.

But his heart! His essential goodness. I laid my head on the foam of his hospital mattress and gave in to my grief. The entire world flickered and dimmed, swooping in on itself until only a pinhole remained. I felt myself drift, my mind detached from its moorings. The muted sound of my own sobbing filtered in as if I were hearing it from a very great distance.

Sometime later—minutes, maybe—a tentative hand at my back brought me crashing back to reality. I raised my head to see Wally, gowned and gloved and masked. The CDC had made him shave the Molestache for a better seal on the mask, I remembered, which he’d complained about for weeks. It had been like losing a thumb, he’d said. His skin—the visible portion of it—was haggard. He looked much older.

He didn’t speak, but he handed me a small insulated container. I unzipped it and stared at the contents. Declan’s nanobody drug.

“Don’t ask me what it is,” I said. “It’s better if you leave before they figure out you snuck in here.”

Wally locked eyes with me. “I’m going nowhere.”

“I want to make this clear: you don’t know what’s in the bag and you don’t know what I’m about to do.” Having absolved Wally from complicity in my action, I returned my attention to the vial, and all at once my spine turned to ash. I slumped forward, almost dropping the bag.

“I have to pick which one of them gets it,” I whispered.

Behind his face shield, Wally’s eyes widened. He looked from Rorie to Beau and back to Rorie.

“It’s not likely to work,” I said. My voice came out full of such raw desperation that Wally flinched. “This version has never been tested against ART. As far as I know, it’s never been given to a human at all. And even if it stops all the viral replication cold, they’re already so sick . . .”